Anti-Islamic posts on social media have skyrocketed since the United States and Israel launched a war in Iran last month, according to the nonpartisan Center for the Study of Organized Hate. A mass shooting in Austin earlier this month, in which a gunman wearing clothing referencing Iran and Islam killed three people and wounded more than a dozen, further intensified the online discourse.
The war and mass shooting have sent “Islamophobic content targeting Muslim Americans to new extremes,” the Washington, D.C.-based organization wrote in a report this week.